Nepal's only openly gay public figure, who became an icon for South Asia's sexual minorities with his crusade for gay rights, has now thrown his support behind Mahatma Gandhi, saying the sexual orientation of the preacher of non-violence could never detract from his immense contribution to India's battle for freedom and world peace.

Sunil Babu Pant, the only openly homosexual member of Nepal's parliament and founder of Blue Diamond Society, the pioneering gay rights organisation that has won court nod for same-sex marriages in Nepal, became the latest public figure to join the growing controversy over a new book on Mahatma Gandhi following a ban on it by the Indian state where Gandhi was born in 1869.